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TikTok · 3 months ago

Backend Software Engineer, TikTok Live Recommendation Infrastructure

San Jose, CA

Full-time

Onsite

Mid Level

$137K/yr - $360K/yr

3+ years exp

TikTok is a leading destination for short-form mobile video, aiming to inspire creativity and bring joy. They are seeking a Backend Software Engineer for the TikTok Live Recommendation Infrastructure team, responsible for designing and building backend systems that support large-scale recommendation workloads and collaborating with ML engineers to optimize the recommendation stack.

Content CreatorsContent DiscoveryMedia and EntertainmentSocial MediaVideo

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

Design and build backend systems that support large-scale recommendation workloads, including training, inference, and data pipelines

Develop robust and efficient model infrastructure, including distributed training pipelines and low-latency inference serving

Architect and improve data pipelines to enable efficient collection, preprocessing, and offline feature engineering for recommendation and ranking models

Collaborate closely with ML engineers and researchers to productionize models and integrate them into the TikTok Live recommendation stack

Drive performance optimization and cost-efficiency across training, inference, and data workflows

Ensure system robustness, scalability, and maintainability in high-traffic live streaming scenarios

Qualification

C++GoJavaPythonDistributed systemsML infrastructureData pipelinesDeep learning frameworksCloud-native environmentsProblem-solving skillsCollaboration

Required

Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field

At least 3 years of experience in strong programming skills in C++, Go, or Java, and scripting experience in Python

Solid experience in distributed systems and backend service development

Hands-on experience with ML infrastructure, including model serving, inference optimization, or large-scale training systems

Proficiency in building and maintaining data pipelines such as Spark, Flink, Kafka, Hadoop, or similar

Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to work in fast-paced, collaborative environments

Preferred

Experience working with recommendation systems, ranking, or personalization platforms

Familiarity with deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch

Knowledge of cloud-native environments (Kubernetes, container orchestration)

Experience in performance optimization for large-scale, low-latency systems

Prior experience in live streaming, content delivery, or real-time systems is a plus

Benefits

Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance

A 401(k) savings plan with company match

Paid parental leave

Short-term and long-term disability coverage

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

10 paid holidays per year

10 paid sick days per year

17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure)

Company

TikTok

Glassdoor3.4

TikTok is a short-form video entertainment app and social network platform. It is a sub-organization of ByteDance.

Founded in 2003

Los Angeles, California, USA

10001+ employees

https://www.tiktok.com

H1B Sponsorship

TikTok has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)

Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship

Represents job field similar to this job

Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (979)

2024 (601)

2023 (387)

2022 (322)

2021 (133)

2020 (72)